Robert Jenrick’s defection to Reform UK has been handed a scathing assessment by the Chairman of Newark’s Conservatives Association.

Speaking to GB News, Keith Girling hit out at the former Tory MP as he declared the move a “joke” and “absolute rubbish”.

After being sacked by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Mr Jenrick was unveiled as the latest addition to Reform UK, welcomed by Nigel Farage earlier today.

Addressing the press conference, Mr Jenrick declared he no longer “trusts the Tories on immigration” and is “proud” to play a part in the growing success of Reform.

Reacting to his defection, Mr Girling told GB News: “It’s not I’m not angry, I’m just very, very disappointed in Robert. We’ve carried him, we’ve supported him massively in his political ambitions to be the leader of the party and then everything he’s wanted to do, really.

“So for him to do this and to make out he is somebody with integrity and honesty when he’s been working on this since September, it’s a joke.”

Rebutting Mr Jenrick’s claim that “neither the Conservatives or Labour have the backbone to fix Britain”, Mr Girling fumed: “It’s absolute rubbish. He’s been part of it, he’s been in all the senior positions to be able to do something about it and actually wasn’t the best in those positions.

“He resigned because he wanted to go further on immigration, but come on. It’s like driving a car into a wall, getting out and blaming the passenger. He’s been part of this and he’s trying to blame everybody else but take responsibility himself.”

He added: “Kemi has taken the lead now, and she’s actually transforming the party and bringing us back to being true Conservatives, and that’s what we want, as Conservatives always have been.

“Conservatives want to get back to that, the true principles and the true directive that we need to have.”

As Martin argued that Mr Jenrick perhaps felt he “couldn’t get the job done because he was prevented by his own parliamentarians”, Mr Girling completely disagreed: “Well, that’s that’s ridiculous, isn’t it? There’s a very good saying, something about being better off peeing in the tent outwards than out the tent inwards, and the Conservatives are there.

“I’ve not been happy with the Conservatives, but I haven’t left because I’m not happy at the moment, I’m doing my bit to try and get us back to being proper Conservatives, and he should be doing that.”

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He told GB News: “All these people that’s left different parties to be part of Reform, let’s be clear about it.

“They’re not doing it because they believe in Reform, they’re doing it because they believe their political ambition will be best served in Reform, because they think they’re going to landslide in the next election.

“But I think some of them will get a bit of a shock, actually.”

Highlighting that the defection leaves the Tories with a “huge headache” in Mr Jenrick’s constituency of Newark, Mr Girling said: “Well, to be fair, I think if you look at Nottinghamshire in particular and Newark in particular, actually we’ve got more Conservative councillors than anybody else around.

“People look at what the Conservatives are doing, it’s not just about Robert Jenrick, and we’ve got really good Conservative councillors.

“We’ve got the leader of the Conservative group at Nottinghamshire County Council Sam Smith. He’s a great councillor and a good leader and he’s driving forward.”

He concluded: “Because we’ve got a Reform council there, remember, and he’s demonstrating to people how incompetent they are and they are incompetent. So it’s not just about Robert, Robert is one man and the party is bigger than one man.

“We’ll get on with it, I’m a pragmatic person. My next role is to find out who we’re going to have as our next candidate, and we’ll we’ll knock Robert Jenrick off his perch and we’ll continue to have Conservatives in Newark.”

Speaking to GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope, Mr Jenrick said of his defection: “I’ve joined this party as the 270,000th or something member, and I’m proud to do so.

“And to work not just with Nigel, but with a set of people I’ve come to know over a period of time, like my constituency neighbour Lee Anderson, who have built this party from nothing, and I’m just here to play my part, to lend my support and experience, to making it the greatest success that it possibly can be for the sake of the country.

“Yes, it’s a sad day for me to leave a party that I’ve been a part of for so long. It’s sad also because I know there are very good people within the Conservative Party.

“And so my message to them is Reform is here for anyone who shares this conviction that the country needs to be fixed and turned around, and we can’t let party loyalty get in the way of fixing our country. That’s what really matters.”